Australia’s Great Barrier Reef may never recover from last year’s warming-driven coral bleaching, said a study that called for urgent action in the face of ineffective conservation efforts. Record-high temperatures in 2015 and 2016 drove an unprecedented bleaching episode, which occurs when stressed corals expel the algae that live in their tissue and provide them with food. Bleached coral is more susceptible to disease, and without sufficient time to recover -- which can take one decade or several depending on the species -- it can die.

Study: Barrier Reef may never recover. (2017, March 17). Manila Standard, p. B3.